The grieving family of one of four University of Idaho students slaughtered in their off-campus house last month has held off on a funeral – over fears the murderer might show up.
Steve Goncalves, father of Kaylee Goncalves, said he believes the “sick” and “twisted” killer could come to a service hidden among mourners as he lurks in plain sight.
“We wouldn’t want to do some kind of celebration and exclude anyone,” Goncalves told Fox host Marth MacCullum. “So yeah, he could easily be there and that’s the sick kind of twisted person, who would do this kind of crime.”
“Part of the reason we didn’t have a funeral, is because she couldn’t be guaranteed that that monster was going to not be there,” he told ABC News earlier in the week.
The unknown killer is still on the loose almost three weeks after kiling 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves and her friends, Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21 and Xana Kerodle, 20 as they slept in a house in the small city of Moscow sometime in the early morning of Nov. 13, cops have said.
The victims were found dead lying in beds on the second and third floors, each with multiple stab wounds.
When asked if he believed rumors his daughter had been stalked, which the police said they have been unable to verify, Goncalves told McCallum: “I have some inkling that there was some behavior difference [in the victims].
“When you commit a crime you do different behaviors. I’ve asked permission to give that out and they [the police] have told me no, that wouldn’t be beneficial, so I’ve held back on that.”
Goncalves, Mogen and Kernodle all lived in the King Road house, while Chapin was staying the night with Kernodle, who was his girlfriend. Two others on the ground floor of the home were there during the brutal killings but were unharmed.
Goncalves also said he believes people who may have valuable evidence have been too afraid to come forward.
He added: “I know people had been scared to share stuff because of there may be alcohol or drugs or something in the background.
“I’ve tried to work with them to let everybody know that is not what they’re [police] working on.
“But I’ve definitely heard from people that they’re scared to submit stuff.”
Local authorities have faced mounting pressure to provide answers and results as the killer remains on the loose, with some criticism about their conflicting public statements in the weeks since the murders.
Moscow police, working with Idaho State Police and other agencies on the case walked back initial statements that there was no ongoing threat to the general public, then flip flopped over whether the murders were a “targeted” attack.
Steve Goncalves was said on Fox News the confusion was adding to family’s frustration.
“I don’t like it one bit,” he said. “They [authorities] keep coming out with statements that create more questions than they answer and that creates a pressure. And that’s why I feel like there are so many people coming looking for answers, and I’m one of them.
Some details of the case have been withheld from the public because only the killer and investigators would know certain details, Goncalves acknowledged on the cable station.
He said he had been told not to reveal certain clues and hadn’t intentionally broken that promise when he publicly share the previously unknown detail that his daughter and lifelong friend Mogen were found dead in the same bed.
He explained: “I’m sure they’re not happy with me saying that. I didn’t mean to say something that was supposed to be under wraps. I’ve told them, you gotta work with me, tell me what to say and not to say and I’ll listen.”
